


High Noon in Hell

by Pandigital



Series: The dragon is sated at high noon [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, F/F, F/M, Family of Choice, M/M, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2018-11-12 13:12:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11162544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandigital/pseuds/Pandigital
Summary: The dragon knew it the moment he saw Jesse McCree. Jesse McCree knew it the moment he saw Hanzo Shimada. He was head over heels, stupid look on your face, running into things, why are my hands sweaty, in love. Well, fuck.





	1. Fear is a responsible response for most of life's actions.

Jesse was ready to get up off the bed and be able to move around. But Angie wouldn’t let him, Zenyatta and Athena had both been trying to make the God Program in his head _tell them anything,_ and Hanzo was all but sitting on him playing guard dog to everyone. Jesse wouldn’t fault him for that though. He had been missing a...a long time before they had come to rescue him. For the most part, Hanzo and the others were trying to act like they did around him before all of the horrible things happened. But he supposed he was having an easier time fitting back in then Gabe and his little team. Gabe was kept in an airtight tank in the basement and Jack had all but set up his room down there.

Sombra and Hana had hit it off with their love of tech and Sombra had kept her little electric hands off of the computers. Amélie had taken to being placed in a holding cell with little argument about it. But Jesse knows that something is off. He can feel it in his bones. Hanzo hovers too close and the others are trying too hard to get the God Program to tell them something. As he lies on his back with Hanzo curled close to him, he thinks. Hanzo plays with his air and presses kisses into his collarbone. The setting sun cast the room into a warm glow.

“What ain’t ya telling me, darlin’?” he asks softly in the dim room.

Hanzo doesn’t stop playing with his hair, “What do you mean?”

“Everyone is walking on eggshells ‘round me.” Jesse said softly, “Zenyatta and Athena are doing there best to get Alex—”

“Alex?”

“The God Program looks like ma big sister. Her name is Alex. Been calling the program that and she answers to it well enough.” Jesse says as he looks at Hanzo and smiles at him.

“I did not know you had an older sister.”

“She was a good woman. I don’t rightly know what happened to her after I got shacked up with the Deadlock gang.”

“If she is alive,” Hanzo said, “I would be honored to meet her.”

Jesse chuckles and curls closer to Hanzo, “She’d be happy as a clam to meet ya, too, huckleberry.”

Hanzo plants a kiss in the nest of his hair, “I want to tell you. But they asked me to wait to tell you. They didn’t want you to worry.”

Jesse pulls the short hair on Hanzo's beard and pulls him into a kiss, “I’m worried cause no one wants to ta tell me nothing. I wanna know.”

“You might do something horrible to us and yourself.” Hanzo whispers as the twilight settles over the room and the lights flicker on in the room.

Jesse had wondered about that. While “Alex” never went into detail about the other people she had been headmates with the underlying tone implied something horrible happened. He had wanted to ask but he could see it on her face that it was a touchy subject. Maybe they had died because she took so much energy from them. She took a lot from him, if he was being honest. He kissed Hanzo softly and said, “Darlin’, ain’t nothing gonna happen to little ol ’me.  Between you an’ Alex in ma head...I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t lie to me, please.” Hanzo whispered.

“Never.”

***********************

Jack could feel his body wobble back and forth in the chair he was sitting in. The air-tight, glass container held Gabe. A cot had been brought in for him. He was as still as the dead and posed like one too. Jack rubbed at his eyes to ward off the weary air around him. He was tired. They had no way of getting rid of the nano-bots inside the Talon members that had been brainwashed. The only good thing was that the God Program was keeping them in check. And the God Program was happy enough to be content trapped inside of Jesse's’ head.

“You’ll go crazy if you stay up watching me, Jackie.” Gabe said softly, his chest not moving and his vital signs negative on the screen outside the containment cell.

“If I can’t last a few days without sleep then what good was the SEP?” he chuckled.

Gabe turned his head to look at him, his eyes a low glow of blood red, “You got old, baby-doll. I don’t... _do_ things like sleep too much anymore. Or eat, or breath. Hell, I can’t even bleed anymore. The living dead.”

Jack glared at him and cracked his back, “You are older than me, jackass.”

Gabe smirked at him, “Too bad I stopped aging after like, my thirties. I kept my good looks. Sombra says that I could be somebody's daddy.”

Jack grit his teeth. He had no right to feel like it was a betrayal. They had been...over for a long time. Even if he still felt like they still had a them. He stood up and walked over to his own cot and kicked his boots off as he flopped on the hard mattress, “Good for them.”

“Don’t worry, Jack. No one ever even came close to you for me. And after us...I never wanted to try again. I was too emotional.” Gabe sighed and turned his head back to look at the ceiling of the cell, “Sometimes I wonder if we shoulda just left once the UN got to tell us every little thing we could and couldn’t do.”

Jack itches along his scalp and sighs, “Yeah. We should have grabbed Angie, Lena, Jesse, Genji, Anna, Rein and Torb and left soon as we could. Hide away our little family and kill anyone who tried to hurt them.”

“Anna would want her daughter.” Gabe says, “Genji would want his brother. We would need to get him Zenyatta so he could level himself. Torb would need his wife and his small army of children.”

Jack chuckles at that, “Lena and her girlfriend.”

“Rein would want to go somewhere like Germany.”

“Lena liked Arizona.”

Gabe chuckles, “Maybe we should go stay with Jesse and his family. Hide out on the reservation so no one could touch us.”

“That brave Navajo boy.” Jack sighed, “I remember when he would mutter about things in Navajo. Never understood a word of it but his face said enough.”

Gabe chuckled loudly and then sat up on the bed, “Oh god, that time we had to meet Gerard Lacroix, I can still see his face when Jesse told him to eat his own ass.”

“In Spanish?” Jack said with a laugh and sat up as well.

“No. He said it in English and then when Gerard asked what I was going to do about it Jesse just looked at me and spoke nothing but Navajo. I lied my ass off and said he only knew that one phrase in English.” Gabe laughed through each word and wiped at his eyes.

Jack laughed loudly, “Oh god, Gerard was a hoot.”

“I can’t believe he married her sometimes.” Gabe says softly, “Amélie married him after he asked her ten times. Never saw a man so happy.”

“Why did she kill him?” Jack asked.

“The programming said to kill all ties to your old life.” Gabe answers, “Amélie only had him and she killed him because she just loved him so much. After the last asshole she was unfortunately married to I’m glad.”

At this Jack blinks and fully looks at Gabe, “Before?”

Gabe looks at him with a raised eyebrow, “Yes?”

“Who was she married to before Gerard?”

“Some dick from the UN.” Gabe says, “Used to be beat her badly. Never her face or her legs; she was a ballerina and those two things were what drew people to her shows. She got him caught on camera beating her and she won her divorce case. Four years later Gerard showed up and she said, “He spoke to me and about me like I was the queen of the world. Deserving of his respect and adoration and also to be feared for what I could do, should I ever put my mind to it.” Amélie wishes she had been stronger to fight the coding...she misses him something awful, Jackie.”

“Did they get you before…?”

“No. After. Years upon years of trying to make me _hate_ and...you can’t hate family, not really. You can dislike ‘em till kingdom come but hate ain’t something you feel for the people you love with all your soul.” Gabe sighed and lied back down.

“Like Lucifer and God.” Jack said.

“Didn’t I tell you that?”

“Once. Made sense. Why would an all powerful, all knowing being spare a usupur for his crown unless it was his own son whom he loved too much to smite?” Jack rubbed at his face, “I liked hearing you talk about God and Heaven and all the saints in their gold than any priest I ever had to be dragged to.”

“The Devil and God played chess for souls and God let him get pieces out of pity for his love for his son out weighed his anger at his actions.” Gabe smirked and then looked at Jackie, “The woman who found me and raised me used to drop me off when she went to work at some crazy old man's house. He used to preach at me until she came back.”

“You miss her?”

“All the time. She had eyes like Jesse.”

“Brown?” Jack joked.

“No. Her eyes made you wanna weep.”

***********************

The names blur together when she tries to sort them. She stops trying names and instead goes by feelings. She soons stops that method too because anger and sadness make her feel like she failed them. She did, but she doesn’t want to be reminded of it. She then decides to work her way backwards. Jesse is the latest in a long line of poor souls she has been forced upon. Jesse is sad and tired and she has no more energy to try and make him do anything.

She will protect him because this place feels nice.

It feels like home.

She doesn’t know why it feels like home, but it does. Kamala. She was a sweet woman. A nurse. She had wept so much. They had been cruel to her and held her family above her head to make her do what they said. She wanted to go in her sleep.

A car in a closed space with the engine running. She doesn’t remember the deaths, only static. Derek. He had been a former Navy Seal. He had been dying when they put her inside his head. He was happy to let the pain of his cancer eat him alive. Jessica.

A mother of two they had kidnapped from her arm. She had been so scared. Her fear had killed her long before they put the needle in her arm. Joan. They had been young and the child of a foreign minister. When their father did not heed Talon they left the child to choke from a bridge. Ruben.

A homeless man they had wanted to test her out on. He was happy to be warm. He had been treated the same on the streets his whole life. She wished she didn’t know that. Malik. Talon had promised him his family would be granted safe passage into Canada. He died not knowing what had happened to them.

Veronica. She had been a Talon agent who suffered a stroke. Veronica never got better just because they had put her in that womans head. Subaru. The Yakuza had tossed him to Talon for better guns. What good was son who wanted to be a daughter to their clan? She never understood humans and their fickle ideology of gender.

You were born and you died. Whatever else happens between then is your own success or failure. Alice. She had been a willing victim. Washington. She can’t recall the first name only that they had been in black ops and that...that...she would remember it soon. She had time to wait for the memories to return to her. She had all the time in the world.

*****************************

Hanzo keeps his hand over Jesse’s heart, to feel it pound in his chest. The steady rise and fall of his breathing soothes the frayed nerves he has. Jesses eyes move under his eyelids and his fingers twitch on Hanzos’ hip. When the nightmares come, Hanzo sings and runs his fingers over the bridge of his nose and down his cheek. Jesse sleeps on with the nightmares banished by a loving touch. Hanzo...Hanzo doesn’t sleep much anymore. When they had come back everyone had been sent to the medical ward.

Genji and he had been tested and the result that came back...he closes his eyes tightly and evens his breathing so he doesn’t wake Jesse. Something dark is swimming down in his heart. Not the dragons, he and Genji had known about them for years, since they had been children. That part they had seen on blood and medical test before. But his test...he can still see the words. Big blocky black letters.

UNKNOWN.

Hanzo knowns what it is.

Dragons are a kind of demon when they want to be. And demons are only as evil as they allow themselves to be. Humans can be the kindest or the cruelest of all the world's wonders. Hanzo knows the test says UNKNOWN, but he knows what he is. What he allowed himself to become. And now it sits in the dark with him, just where he can’t see it. He knows it wears a smile on its face and the blood drips from his hands.

It hisses in his ear sometimes.

Horrible things.

**Kill them all.**

_No,_ Hanzo thinks loudly, trying to drown out the voice that is a cruel mockery of his own, _they are my team mates. They helped me save Jesse. They are like family to me._

**Take your little brother, his lover and yours, and go back to Hanamura.**

_This is home. Jesse, Genji, Zenyatta, Miss Angela and Fareeha, Jesse's’ father—both of them—everyone is here. Hanamura would mean nothing to any of them if we left all the others behind. Hanamura isn’t home...anymore._

**Kill those who assumed to command you.**

Hanzo wants to scream but Jesse needs to rest, _They are not worth my time. They are old and death will come to them in due time. Time they are short on. My life is still ahead of me and I have to make the most of it to redeem myself of my sins._

**Take back your crown and your city.**

_King or beggar, all of us are human and unworthy to command anyone._

The demon laughs at this and Hanzo has to grit his teeth to stop himself from saying anything. Jesse gives a small whimper in his sleep and Hanzo tends to him while the demon laughs and laughs and laughs. When Jesse is calm once more the demon speaks again.

**Be a god.**

_No, gods live forever and Jesse won’t. What good is power if the man I love has to keep dying? My heart would not last._

**If you kill him, then Jesse can yours forever.**

Hanzo looks at Jesse in the dark, his tan face and how skinny he had become and how hurt. How much Jesse loved them and how Hanzo had wanted the world to burn for what happened to him. He tucks his face into Jesses neck and breath in the smell of him. Sweat and fading tobacco, smoke and the apple shampoo he liked.

_He isn’t mine. He’s his own person who happens to love me and I love him. Love isn’t about owning, it’s about being happy to be given permission to call someone else your one and only._

**Fool** , the demon snaps.

Hanzo ignores it and instead lets the steady breathing and warmth of Jesse calm him enough to sleep.


	2. Dead man walking

Gabriel watches a thing a lint floating on the other side of the glass, blowing it around by the AC. Jack is dead asleep on the other side of the room. He has gotten so old and it hurts Gabe to see it. The scars on his face are old and deep. Almost a dark brown with how old they are. They seem to start on his eyes and crawl down to his lips. No doubt Angela worked to fix him, but even she isn’t god. 

She wasn’t even a miracle worker. She was just a woman who wanted to help as best she could. Even if she had to kill her own moral compass to do so. Gabe had often been amazed at her work, but her lack of morals sometimes irked him. He let it go, being dead brought things into perspective. His anger wasn’t at his family, it was those sons of bitches who killed them all, who had tried to kill Jack. Who had killed him. 

Sombra had tried to her best to shift through the dirt to find them, but even she could only find so much. Whoever had done this had covered their tracks very well. And that was the part that was the most confusing thing. Who had enough power over all the  _ world  _ that they could do this and get away with it? At the time there had been several high profile people who had made it clear that they did not the path that the whole Overwatch organization did or what it stood for once the war on the omics had been won. But they had all be older men and women, and whoever did this would have to still be alive. Or something close to it. Gabe rubbed at his eyes and turned his back to the glass. 

He hid his face in the crook of his arm and took a deep breath he didn’t need. He was a dead man walking, after all. 


	3. She understood the world, and her place in it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doom, doom, doom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:   
> C'est une connerie.=This is bullshit  
> Bastards, tous.=Bastards, all of them.   
> Nous sommes condamnés si nous partons=We are doomed if we leave.

Sombra kicked her legs as she worked her magic to get access to the Talon files that they had tried to keep her from. Laughable, if it could be hacked she could find it. Old paper trails were easier to hide since no one had them online, but it was still a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. She flicked and spun her fingers on the screen. Something kept being said a man who was a leader of Talon. One of them anyway. She dug deeper and deeper but a name kept being blacked out. 

Who are you? Who are you? She clicked her tongue and frowned at the screen. She needed to know. She heard the footsteps coming up behind her, and she waved her hand behind her. Hana sat down next to her and handed her a cold beer. She smiled at Hana and they sat on the balcony of the watchpoint and drank in silence. 

Hana looked over her shoulder now and then and finally just as the sun was setting she got her answer. Who are you? She dropped her beer and the glass fell, down, down, down, and broke below them. Hana looked at her as she stared, gaped mouth at the screen.

“Sombra?” she asked. 

“No.” she shook her head as she got to her feet. Hana followed her as she all but ran down the hallways, screaming for Gabriel. 

“Sombra!” Hana said as she gave chase. 

Sombra burst into the room they were holding Gabriel and Jack shot up from his cot as Sombra came to a skidding halt in front of the glass, where Gabriel stood waiting for her. She smacked her screen to the glass and Gabriel read the text. His eyes grew large and he shook his head as he took a step back. 

“No.” Gabriel said and gripped his hair, “No, no, no. God please, no!” 

Jack came over to them, “What? What happened?” 

Sombra looked at him and handed her screen over to him, “Akande.” 

Hana was still catching her breath as she asked, “Who is that?” 

Gabriel looked up, tears of blood running down his face, “The man who ruined me.” 

“Gabi?” Jack asked. 

“He was my commander.” Gabriel sobbed out, “When they put him away I was free. Now, now there is no escape.” 

Hana threw up her hands, “WHO IS HE?” 

Sombra looked at her, “Doomfist.” 

*******************

“Alex?” Jesse whispered. The AI inside of him seemed to come out of being powered down and yawned as she answered him. 

“Yes, Jesse?” 

Jesse gently pet the silky smooth hair of Hanzo as he drooled on his shoulder, “I have a question for you.” 

“You should be asleep. Humans heal while asleep. A self-sustaining ecosystem of regeneration. A marvel to behold.” 

“Well that’s what I wanted to ask you. Angie would just be all doctor like about it and I don’t wanna know the nitty gritty. I just wanna the basic stuff.” 

Alex was silent for a moment and then said, “What?” 

“Like, why and  _ how  _ are we the top of the food chain when people like Hanzo and Genji can do what they do, ya know?” 

Alex was silent for so long and Jesse wondered if she had gone back to sleep. She finally answered, “Power becomes its own master at some point. And when that happens it soon becomes meaningless. Humans are a self-aware species. They crave a power like the kind the Shimada clan has but can never realize it. But humans make up for it with being stubborn.” 

Jesse chuckled, “Stubborn? Really?”

“What else would you call it? What else would you call what you did when you were in the tender care of Talon?” Alex asked, “You stayed alive just to spite them. You refused to die. Stubborn fool.” 

“Like Amélie and Gabriel.” Jesse said. 

Alex scoffed, “And yet, should the correct phrase be said by the correct person in the Talon hierarchy, than their short lived freedom will come to a close. Now  _ sleep  _ and shut up.” 

*******************

Jack and Gabriel sat in tense silence, with Sombra and Amélie sitting on the floor by the cell holding Gabriel. Jack had been told everything about Doomfist in regards to his connections to Talon. Amélie and Gabriel had still been heavily brainwashed and he had been their task master. Sombra had not yet been recruited into their folds and thus knew only what she had dug up herself when her questions had been given watery answers. Finally, Amélie shook her head and smacked her head lightly on the glass. 

She spoke French through gritted teeth, “C'est une connerie.” 

“So...if we look at this, realistically,” Sombra said softly, “Gabriel and Amélie have to stay hidden from Akande. He could reactivate their programming.” 

“I thought that the A,I inside of Jesse was undoing all of that?” Jack asked. 

“It took time to make us like this, Jackie,” Gabriel said as he buried his face in his hands, “It’ll take time for that A.I to undo what they did. Assuming it even can undo what they did.” 

Amélie rolled her eyes and tapped the glass until Gabriel looked at her. She smirked at him and said, “Bastards, tous.” 

Gabriel laughed out loud and Sombra giggled into her hand before looking at Jack once more, “According to Talon and their records, Akande has been moved to different cells every six months since he was put away. Each time the cell and its integrity is weaker than the last one.” 

“So” Jack asked.

“He can break out of his cell, if the wall is weak enough.” Amélie said, “Even without his gauntlet he is still a force of nature. If the wall is weak enough, he could break out anytime he wanted to and nothing would be able to stop him.” 

“It’s the reason we were trying to steal it when it was on display,” Gabriel said, “So when he got back if would less time between plans.” 

Jack itched his head, “What plans?” 

Sombra gave a shrug of her shoulders, “It was always like, last minute plans, seemingly thrown together a few days before we got told about them. It was usually word of mouth, no data trail to follow.” 

“Need to know basis, then? Blueprints and the like came after?” Jack asked. 

“Like how I used to run Blackwatch.” Gabriel sighed. 

“You had a data trail.” Jack snapped, “I saw it.” 

“After the fact, never during or before.” Gabriel told him, “I was told to keep the black ops as tight lipped as possible. Ask Genji or even Jesse. I got so jaded that I stopped caring.” 

“Who told you?” 

Gabriel looked right at Jack, red eyes steady and otherworldly in the dim light, “If I could remember that, I would have killed them first when I had my few brief moments of freedom, Jackie. But I can only see their face, and even then, barely.” 

Amélie sighed deeply and said, “Nous sommes condamnés si nous partons.” 


	4. Dead men tell no tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conversations with the dead never yield the information you're looking for.

Gabriel had been allowed to wander around base and had taken to hiding in the room where Athena and the God Program—or at least a copy of it that it had  _ allowed  _ be studied—and had taken to just watching the modem that held it. This went on for weeks until the God Program it seemed had enough of him staring. 

“Well?” 

Gabriel held himself tightly and let his eyes trace the dim lights in the modem, “I know what you are. I know that you  _ know  _ about Akande. About...us. But I fought your kind. I was good at it. So, tell me your plan. Tell me what you are going to do.” 

The A.I laughs and says with a snippy tone, “You assume I would tell  _ you  _ my plans? The gall! While you were the holy terror of my brethren I am not afraid of you. As you know, I have some...insurance to make sure  _ none  _ of you can touch me.”

“Jesse,” Gabriel sighed and sat down in front of the modem, “is more than willing to die if it means you follow suit. But I’m not so sure we need you dead. We just need you to help us.” 

“You think I’d ally myself with you?” The A.I chuckles and Gabriel rolls his eyes and props his head up on his hand.  

“What other option do you have? If you let us kill you, you’re dead and that’s that. Talon would hardly be upset at having to try and find another God Program. Last time I checked, Korea and Egypt each have one, and Zenyatta has enough of a God Program data node inside his head they could rebuild the program he was hiding. I know you won’t become our ally—no A.I like you has ever looked at humans as allies—but you do find us useful and have been know to manipulate us. So...I am offering you something you can not try to bargain for without a good word in your favor.” 

The A.I is silent for a long moment, “Jesse would vouch for me.” 

“Do you really think that anyone would take the word of man who has you  _ literally  _ surgical implanted in his cerebral cortex?” Gabriel chuckled. 

“And they would take the word of a former enemy with a flimsy grasp of his own memories and a kill record of their own former operatives?” The A.I snapped. 

“No,” Gabriel chuckles, “no. But Jackie would believe me and Jackie can make your case. They might listen to him.” 

The A.I scoffs, “Tell me, Mr. Reyes, what on this horrid planet could I possibly want?”

“A body. And I have an idea for how to get you one. But I need to talk to Jackie.” 

“You are playing a dangerous game,” The A.I hissed, “Gabriel Reyes.” 

***************

Jack was busy working on his visor when the knock at his door came. He placed the tiny screwdriver down on the desk and went to open the door. 

“Who is it?” he called as he placed his hand on the doorknob. 

“Sombra.” 

He opened the door and raised his eyebrow at the young woman at his door. She gave him a smirk and handed him a tablet. He clicked his tongue, “And what’s this?” 

“The Angel and The Monk have been hard at work to make that report for you,” Sombra said as she looked at her nails, “and the little DJ has been keeping them in good health. It won’t  _ kill  _ you to read it.” 

Jack scowled at her, “Why are  _ you  _ delivering it, then? Why not Lucio?” 

She shrugged her shoulders and walked away. “I was passing by and was asked.” 

Jack scoffs and shuts the door, looking down at the tablet. A medical report and Jesse, Hanzo and Gabriel. He scrolled down to Gabriel and got on his bed. It was mostly medical terms that went over his head and then scrolled down to the summary. He grit his teeth as he read it. It wasn’t anything good. It was worse than he had imagined. 

_ I will be frank in my evaluation and try to be as openly candid as possible. While the nanomachines inside of G. Reyes are working on a level that has been presented before to medical science, it is worrisome. The nanomachines are something like a clone of my old work back during the Crisis. While the nanomachines had once been something I would have gladly given a green light to,upon developing them I found out something horrible. While it was true that they could have regenerated damaged flesh and organ in real time, they also could act like a cancer and kill the user. G. Reyes has the benefit of having died and thus his flesh is in a constant state of decay _ — _ it makes the machines work harder to keep him alive and keep him from dying again _ — _ should the machines repair him to the point he is no longer in a state of decay, they might do something worse. They might bring him back to life and the shock of suddenly  _ living  _ again might damage beyond repair.  _

_ At this time, we should keep close tabs on him. Nanomachines proved to be even more deadly when near a God Program.  _

Jack put the tablet down and rubbed his face. Gabriel had died for Overwatch and everyone had painted him the villain in the story of their lives and it wasn’t even true. He slid down the bed and let his head come to rest upon his pillow. He threw one arm over his eyes. The radio on his desk had been turned low as Athena played him music from satellites. It suddenly gave a low hiss and he turned his head to look at it. Then the radio began to speak. 

Different channels all being used to make words. 

The oldest trick the God Programs had used back during the Crisis. A scare tactic that had worked very well during periods of high stress. An enemy who could kill without being seen. 

“Mor—ri—son?” 

“The God Program,” he chuckled and covered his eyes again, “well, color me surprised. What do you want?” 

Static, “A moment of— your—time.” 

“You have it.” Jack snapped, “Or are you trying to test my patience?” 

The radio gave a low hiss, “Everyone must—test—before—enlistment—soldier.” the radio gave a low whine as the volume seemed to turn itself down, “Rules—ya know?” 

Jack sat up in bed and flung his legs over the edge to glare at the radio, “I did test. I passed. As you no doubt know. So what do you want?” 

The radio gave a shriek as the volume got turned all the way up and Jack stood, covering his ears. The lights in his room flickered and then burst. The energies came on. The radio fizzled out in silence and then the voices started up again.  _ Fucking God Programs _ , he thought as he lowered his hands from his ears. They were always like this. Flying off the handle. 

“We are—an—island—race—and through all our times—the sea has—ruled—our—breaks—but—be—wary—young ones—there will be—other—ships—and other—souls—to—sail—them. Above—all—victories and—beyond all—loss—in spite of—changing—values—and a changing world—we are as—unchanging as—the sea. Is your—lover—able to say—the same thing?” 


	5. Comfort was the answer to all of life's problems.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse is tired.

The dream starts the same way always. Jesse thinks that the God Program is more human than it admits. It starts with a man, old and kind, speaking to a large group of reporters in front of the U.N. The man speaks slow, and soft, and his eyes are blind. But Jesse can feel the betrayal when the God Program thinks of him. When he asks for the mans name, the God Program only calls him father and nothing else. Jesse understands it, the feeling of not being able to trust the people who are suppose to stick by you always. 

But family isn’t perfect. The old man speaks, his voice carrying over the crowd, “First, an A.I. system must be subject to the full gamut of laws that apply to its human operator. This rule would cover private, corporate and government systems. We don’t want A.I. to engage in cyberbullying, stock manipulation or terrorist threats; we don’t want the F.B.I. to release A.I. systems that entrap people into committing crimes. We don’t want autonomous vehicles that drive through red lights, or worse, A.I. weapons that violate international treaties. Our common law should be amended so that we can’t claim that our A.I. system did something that we couldn’t understand or anticipate. Simply put, “My A.I. did it” should not excuse illegal behavior.” 

Jesse knows that the God Program had started small. The car ran red lights, the stock market took a deep dive, suicide rates went through the roof due to cyberbullying. And it just worse. And worse. He had asked it once, if it regretted what it did. And it had laughed and said no. Why be remorseful of the food chain? 

“I assume we can have two A.I Robots exchange their "personality" while humans cannot.” the old man keeps going, “If that happens then they will all want to be like Victor Frankenstein's monster; his creation faced the ire and fear of the villagers but of course it was Victor who should be punished. All the...any A.I. must have an impregnable “off switch.” That must be a rest mode, not a kill mode. We can't expect actual intelligence to allow itself to grow. My second rule is that an A.I. system must clearly disclose that it is  _ not _ human. As we have seen in the case of bots — computer programs that can engage in increasingly sophisticated dialogue with real people — society needs assurances that A.I. systems are clearly labeled as such.”

The God Program was as human as him. It felt sadness. Not for what it had done but for what had been done to it. It had anger. It was furious for what it had lost, for the other verizon of itself that had been killed in the war. It felt everything. And Jesse felt its emotions and his own all the time and he wished he could help it. 

The old man just kept going on, unaware that this was a dream and Jesse is unwilling audience, “In 2016, a bot known as Jill Watson, which served as a teaching assistant for an online course at Georgia Tech, fooled students into thinking it was human. A more serious example was the widespread use of pro-Trump political bots on social media in the days leading up to the 2016 elections, according to researchers at Oxford. My rule would ensure that people know when a bot is impersonating someone. A.I. systems don’t just produce fake tweets; they also produce fake news videos. Researchers at the University of Washington recently released a fake video of former President Barack Obama in which he convincingly appeared to be speaking words that had been grafted onto video of him talking about something entirely different. My third rule is that an A.I. system cannot retain or disclose confidential information without explicit approval from the source of that information. Because of their exceptional ability to automatically elicit, record and analyze information, A.I. systems are in a prime position to acquire confidential information.”

Old news from the old years. Things long since past. But it had affected them regardless. Everything that had happened leading up to the war had all started back in the day. It didn’t seem like that long ago, but it was. Jack, Ana, Gabe, even Rein, they would have barely been a thought in their parents thoughts. It seemed unreal to think about, but it was true. 

“Think of all the conversations that Amazon Echo — a “smart speaker” present in an increasing number of homes — is privy to, or the information that your child may inadvertently divulge to a toy such as an A.I. Barbie. Even seemingly innocuous house cleaning robots create maps of your home. That is information you want to make sure you control.” 

The dream ends when he feels Hanzo slid away from him to wash up for the morning. He opens his eyes and watches the sun rise through the window, face smashed into the pillow. The God Program is still sleeping. And he is tired. 


End file.
